"The name's Brosnan... Pierce Brosnan, and I'll be back after the break." Quite a long break, in fact, after the former James Bond star announced he was returning to television 23 years after he last starred in detective series Remington Steele.

His fourth and final Bond film was Die Another Day in 2002. He recently made a cameo appearance in Fox TV pilot Running Wilde but his last regular TV role was Remington Steele, which famously prevented him from taking the Bond role earlier and came to an end in 1987.

The as-yet-untitled new series is being produced by Sony Pictures Television, which said it was taking the show to the international marketplace before finding a US broadcaster.

But the 57-year-old Brosnan's own days of solving international crises – fictional or not – may be at an end. The former Bond hero is not expected to take the lead role in the new drama, which is partly based on the real-life experiences of a Los Angeles-based investigative bureau.

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